Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "INSOMNIAC IS BEING PRESSURE BY SONY TO MAKE BUDGET CUTS DESPITE THE SUCCESS OF SPIDER-MAN 2"

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticIn this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz delves into the tumultuous recent history of Insomniac Games. We explore the fan and developer relations, particularly focusing on the backlash over character model changes in "Marvel's Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2," where the new models for Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson sparked significant controversy and even harassment towards the creative team. We'll also cover the devastating 2023 data breach that compromised 1.67 terabytes of sensitive company data, rallying the gaming community in support of Insomniac. Additionally, Analytic Dreamz discusses the 2024 layoffs amidst Sony's broader restructuring, and the 2020 workplace harassment allegations that led to public demands for improved practices. Financially, we look at the performance of "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," which despite its high costs didn't meet sales expectations, leading to a strategic shift towards more profitable Marvel titles. Looking ahead, we examine leaked plans for future projects, including an emphasis on Marvel games up to 2030, and shakeups in leadership for major projects like "Wolverine" and "Perfect Dark," highlighting the challenges and changes in game development. Join us for an in-depth analysis without the fluff, only on Notorious Mass Effect.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to have a heart to heart with Insomniac because of course this is one of the game developing companies that have a part of the Spider-Man video game history. As far as the overall history of Spider-Man and what it means as far as to Spider-Man fans, Marvel Spider-Man 1 was one of the greatest Spider-Man, if not the greatest Spider-Man game of all time. And with that being said, when they put out the sequel Marvel Spider-Man 2, technically it was working with a lot more compared to Marvel Spider-Man 1. How did it end up being a disappointment? Now, of course, when it comes to the overall finances, Marvel Spider-Man 2 is definitely seen as a commercial success. But because of Ratchet and Clank, Rift Apart, which they also have a hand-in development, well the domain developers right because of that they had to have a lot of layoffs in budget cut budget cuts which leads me to believe that they are under some type of operational debt or

financial pressure because of course if you don't know insomnia is exclusively under sony so if sony's making these higher up calls as far as reducing costs leading to discussions about about studio closures and significant layoffs, then how in the world are they going to keep putting out this high level quality when it comes to the storyline that they had as far as the classic material with at the very least Marvel Spider-Man 1. Now, of course, Marvel Spider-Man 2 is not a bad game,

but it left a lot to be desired because Marvel Spider-Man 1 was so classic. And then you add Venom, you add Miles, you add all the villains, and backstory and character development from the first game, you would think it would be leaps and bounds ahead of the original as far as story. But that just simply was not the case.

Now, there was a lot of other petty backlash as far as fans talking about how MJ looked because, you know, everybody loves to fall in love with pixels, right? So as far as MJ and the overall design update for Marvel, Spider-Man 2, I don't think that was much of a big deal. but of course people made it a big deal so that was one of the more uh specific adjustments that fans did not like one of the big adjustments that even me myself i was taking aback by was the the face model of peter changing because we was wondering why in the world would this

happen now of course when you play a game usually in live action land do they have recast and because, you know, maybe somebody passed away or maybe they're too old to play that character anymore. So they basically have a recast and have somebody else play the character. But as far as video game land, it's very rare that you have a main character of a video game, especially Spider-Man. That's the entire face model changes for mid-story, right? So they did this back in Marvel Spider-Man remastered version. They changed the face model for Peter.

and basically it led to a lot of which I don't agree with but it led to a lot of online harassment including death threats against a creative director now what did this all lead to because of course it was other things amongst the insomnia at fan base that was a little toxic but this ultimately led to a 2023 data breach that we've never seen before this type of data breach was very um monumental and a historical moment based on the fact that they actually received so much content that was unreleased through this data breach. People thought they were bluffing when they said the amount that they had as far as what they gained from hacking. But they ended up actually having like 1.67 terabytes of sensitive data including employee information, game footage.

I mean, we saw unreleased footage of a Spider-Man multiplayer game. Saw unreleased footage of a Wolverine game. Saw unreleased footage of what else or something else. Oh, we had the whole DOC roadmap released for Marvel Spider-Man 2, which is why when the director, well, somebody came out and said there's no DLC plans for Spider-Man 2. They were just blatantly lying to us. The whole roadmap was leaked.

We saw it clear as day. The first one was going to be Beatle, D-LC, Beetle Infestation, The second D.O.C. was going to be Carnage, D.L.C. And then the third D.L.C. was going to be a Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse. Collab. You know that movie that's supposed to be the final or the trilogy, to end off the trilogy of the Miles Morales animated movie series as far as Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse, Spider-Spider-Man to the Spider-verse, and the Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse. that was supposed to be the trilogy right and the third one was supposed to come right after the movie we

just got as far as beyond the spider verse and now the release date let me see if i could find a release date for across the spider verse day or the spider verse so it's supposed to be a cross-collaborative effort between the third and final uh miles Morales animated movie compared to this game right so Okay, so Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse was supposed to be released March 29, 2024. But now it's pushed back and now the rumored release date is around 2027 because of the complexities and animation production and reported creative overhaul. So now it's seemingly like two movies. It seemingly as if they have completely just fell apart as far as their overall. overall team and Spider-Man until the Spider-Verse was released December 14th, 2018.

Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse was released June 2nd, 2023. We were supposed to get the DLC March, or no, not the DLC. We were supposed to get Spider-Man beyond the Spider-Verse March 29, 2024. Now, that would have coincided with the third DLC date of Marvel Spider-Man 2, which we would have had to across the Spider-verse collab with the whole entire map. was going to be reimagined to be like the Spider-Man Beyond series. It's or the Spider-Man, what do you even call this? The Spider-Verse series, right, with Miles Morales.

It would have looked like the entire world, and it would have been the entire crossover of those two movies. But guess what? Now it's never going to happen because, of course, they push back the third movie, right? It's Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse. it's said to be maybe 2027 probably 2028 like we're in 2025 don't know nobody got time to wait that long so marvel spotterman 2 is just completely um uprooted as far as its dLC plan so they basically and along with the unprecedented leak right now the directors are saying we're not just gonna we're not going to put out any d oc for spireman 2 so fans are very upset with this and the leak that was very unprecedented to the point where all the plans up to 2030 was released from insomnia.

I do believe DLC could still come from Marvel Spider-Man 2. Hear me up. Because I said the third DLC is supposed to be across the Spider-Verse collab, maybe, just maybe, they want to temper your expectations tell you there's no DLC coming. And then when it gets closer to that time, as far as when we get an actual release date for beyond the Spider-Verse. I think we'll get DLC months leading up to that as far as DOC 1 with Beatle and DOC2 with Carnage leading up into whenever this third movie comes out. But of course, it being pushed back so far away.

And the finale of DOC was supposed to be a cross-collaborative effort between this movie. I think now we have to wait. So I think they said no DLC is coming because of that. But to play devil's advocate, if you hack a gaming development, developing studio and release all the plans up to 2023 or no if you release all the plans up to 2030 guess what i'm not mad at them coming out and having some type of combative nature as far as condemning the people who hack their company and released all type of sensitive uh data because this is a historic data breach and we've never really seen anything like this as far as the entire roadmap being unveiled to the public when it was wasn't um as far as it being premature we wasn't supposed to see any footage of the wood ring game but you have people releasing whole think pieces about it and we wasn't supposed to see any type of um any type of video when it comes to the marvel

multi-player game the concept that's all i say that's all saying when we weren't supposed to see any conceptual trailer of the Spider-Man multiplayer until it was actually finished. But guess what? Because it was leaked, because it was hacked, a lot of people was feeling the detrimental effects of this 2023 data breach. So, of course, combined that with Sony laying off 900 employees across PlayStation Studios in 2024, just after the data breach, right? And when it comes to that,

a lot of people criticize that for the simple fact that a lot of success came from Marvel Spider-Man 2 and then the 900 layoffs happened across PlayStation Studios. So people were thinking that they were just being cheap and not wanting to pay anybody, but really I do believe it's deeper than that. If you don't know, Ratchen and Clank Rift Apart costs $81 million to produce

but only sold $8 million. only sold 2.2 million units leading to an 8 million loss so things like that happen all the time but now PlayStation oh no Sony is literally telling insomnia focus solely on marvel property properties uh focus solely on marvel properties because of the profitability that we could have in the future and the debt that we just accumulated by the unsuccessful launch of ratchet and clangliff the part is why now insomniac is solely focused on Marvel projects which is why Wolverine Venom and Spider-Man 3 is not even um doesn't even have a release date now because it's getting pushback because of the data leak everything else is getting pushback and postpone so ultimately that's

why this heart to heart with insomniac exists because let me tell you we're all not like the hackers We all just want good content from Insomnia, but we aren't going to go to lengths of the people who sent the death threats. We aren't going to go to lengths of the people who hacked and stole 1.67 terabytes of your sensitive data. We're not all like that. We just want a good Spider-Man game. That's it. And for this, simple fact, you have to know that whenever the leadership, so the creative director for Wolverine, the one, the project, the Marvel project that's next up, right? the lead creator

Brian Horton he left Insomniak in summer of 2024 and now he's leading wait for it Xbox's Perfect Dark reboot Cameron Christian the game director

so not only did the creative director lead to go to Xbox's Perfect Dark the game director Cameron Christian he went to another role within Insomniac Mike Daly Mike Dolly and Marcus Smith

leads on ratchet and clank rift apart are now heading wolverine when we just saw the numbers as far as ratchet and clank and the unsuccessful launch of that game but now the heading Wolverine now they're leading that charge as far as making wolverine a successful game not saying they can't do it i'm just saying i'm looking at the data and somebody else could have been picked right so with that being said No additional updates have been made about Spider-Man 2. I gave you all my whole synopsis as far as what I project to be the case for that. I do believe the Beyond the Spider-Verse collab between this video game is going to happen, which is why they have to push it back.

But in all actuality, if they really don't want to give us DOC for the Spider-Man 2 game and just want to focus on Wolverine, then I think that Wolverine has to be a bang. to continue this type of success because Marvel Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, if those are both duds, as far as underwhelming, it's going to take all the win at a Marvel Spider-Man 3. Obviously, people are still going to play the game, but we're going to play the game, right? But as far as it being a success on the PlayStation platform, because if it's exclusive on a PlayStation platform, you're already excluding a whole player base. So now it has to be immensely successful on that specific platform, and I think they missed

the mark with ration and clink rift apart but technically they said they were successful with marvel spider-man two and wolverine should definitely be successful as that's a whole new take on wolverine as far as in the video game land so with that being said i think exomniac would be okay but as far as the leadership leading as far as the hacks as far as the overall changes from marvel spider-man one to marvel spider-man two i think there's a lot as far as it being fair to assume there are some shaky ground as far as them putting out solid quality but we'll have to see when the next project eventually comes out so with that being said click my link to my bio let me know one of my social media is what do you think about the heart to heart the insomnia what do you think what they uh what do you think about where they stand financially at the end of the day do you think insomnia could bounce back with marvel future content